Green Energy News | March 18, 2001

March 18, 2001 – Vol.5 No.51

ENERGIES... week of March 18, 2001

SMOOTHING THE LUMPS. Predictable yet variable could be one way to describe the electric output from solar or wind energy. However, energy storage devices - if economically feasible - can act as a buffer between the irregular power supply from these renewables and the explicit power demands of consumers.

American Electric Power (AEP) will be testing a sodium-sulfur (NaS) battery developed by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and NGK Insulators in the 1980’s. Since then more than 20 of these batteries have been in service in Japan in load-leveling applications. Of those in use, two are large 6-megawatt units that will each store 48 megawatt-hours of electricity.

AEP will be testing a smaller 12.5 kilowatt NaS battery and, in two to three years, hopes to sell the technology to others. Customers could be utilities looking to smooth output from renewables or those looking for additional peak-period power availability. The battery could be charged with low-rate off-peak electricity, which could be discharged and sold during high-rate peak periods.

The NaS battery is three times as energy dense as a lead-acid battery, can be recharged in eight hours and discharged in a similar period of time. Visit AEP at http://www.aep.com/ .

CERTIFIED CLEAN COMBUSTION. The vast majority the world’s fleet of heavy trucks and buses are fueled by diesel and the fueling infrastructure is fully in place. By comparison a complete compressed natural gas (CNG) infrastructure for the clean burning fuel has yet to be built.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has certified Capstone’s diesel-fueled 30 kilowatt MicroTurbine power system - its Capstone-Energized (tm) system - for use in commercial hybrid-electric vehicles. Running on No. 2 diesel fuel, the turbine’s NOx emissions were 75% less than the lowest emitting CARB certified diesel engine. Particulate emissions were comparable to CNG engines (which have virtually no particulate emissions) and the hybrid configuration had roughly half the NOx emissions of the best-tested CNG engine. Turbine-hybrid system also has twice the fuel economy as a conventional diesel. The system has no emission devices in the exhaust stream.

Separately, Capstone announced that it will be delivering 141 of the versatile 30 kilowatt MicroTurbines - a $4 million sale - to a partnership of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and other agencies in Southern California. To be installed as distributed generation capacity to relieve strain on the area grid, the turbines will supply 4 megawatts of power - enough for 4000 homes. Visit Capstone at http://www.microturbine.com/ .

CANADA’S NEW GREEN UTILITY. In creating a new renewable energy division - OPG Evergreen Energy - Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has promised to increase its green generating capacity to 500 megawatts by 2005. The company already has 138 megawatts of low-impact hydro power and 6 megawatts from biomass. The first new venture - Huron Wind - with British Energy (Canada) will be a wind farm near the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station on Lake Huron. Capacity should be at least 10 megawatts.

OPG also announced that it will looking to invest $63 million in 20-25 emerging green energy technology companies in North America and Europe over the next three years. Visit OPG at Ontario Power Generation at http://www.ontariopowergeneration.com/ .